SWAN Day 2020 Re-Cap

This year marked the 13th Annual SWAN Day and boy was it a fabulous one! While many events faced cancellations due to COVID19, we were so inspired by the ways the arts community innovated to translate the vitality of in-person events to online, accessible spaces.

We seeing all of the new and existing content from incredible women and non-binary artists all over the globe being shared online as well. The many live events, digital portfolios, studio tours, shout outs, and comments circulating online spaces offered so much vital connection in a time of social distancing. Here’s a highlight reel of just some of the thrilling content that was shared!

Highlights from Virtual SWAN Day Spaces:

Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival: Best Feature Winner "SEEMA", Directed by Macherie EKWA. Check out the trailer for this powerful and devastating film here:

Read & Rant is a new online book club hosted by Athena Project Arts! Click the image below to learn how you can participate:

Spoken word poet Shruti Chauhan is a featured artist this year with the "She Growls UK Poetry Tour". Here is Shruti performing her poem entitled "Relations".

Jasmine Gardosi is also a featured artist for the 2020 "She Growls UK Poetry Tour". Here is Jasmine performing her poem 'She' live at Funkenteleky in Birmingham:

Artist, author, and vlogger Gwenn Seemel shared a video called "Art in the time of Mass Suffering".

Panya Banjoko, a third featured artist from the "She Growls UK Poetry Tour”, performs her poem “Otobong Nkanga, Taste of a Stone”.

Frida Kahlo's legacy has inspired decades of artists to be bold, follow their path, and break down boundaries. Watch as multimedia artist Alexa Meade transforms musician and singer/songwriter Ely Guerra into living, breathing artwork inspired by Frida Kahlo’s work, life and legacy.:

The Resistance Revival Chorus has been hosting live virtual concerts! Click the image below to watch a recording from their last concert!

Megan Hicks is a featured artist this year at the Women's Storytelling Festival Video Viewing Partay! Here she is at the West Chester Story Slam in 2015:

SWAN DAY CT Presented Jennifer Hill (AKA The Murderous Chanteuse) in a Live Stream Concert! Click the image below to watch a recording of this concert!

Stories are our medicine. Listen to Oanh Ngo Usadi's beautiful story via The Moth, featured as part of the Women’s Storytelling Festival. Her story, “Sandwiches & Neighbors”, is about when she and her family arrived in Texas from Vietnam with high hopes and an American Dream.

Femspectives is hosting a fabulous at-home virtual Feminist Film club every Thursday night! Join the party to watch and discuss with other filmmakers and film lovers!

Spoken Soul Festival had a truly incredible lineup of artists last year. Here is one of their featured artists, Reshma Anwar performing her original piece “Runaway”.

HowlRound Theatre Commons plus a group of artists, arts administrators, and others from around the US to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting freelance artists (those who identify as independent contractors) in this powerful panel. The conversation focuses on shared resources (legal, advocacy, how to take your work virtual, finding emergency funding, and financial best practices in crisis) and building and grounding the national community.

Rebecca Jay (Nelems) was the winner of the Women’s Freedom Song Contest with her original song "Stealing Me Back From You". Give it a listen!

Special thanks to: Jamie Bilgo Bruchman of SWAN Day MKE, Sophie Dowllar of SWAN Day Kenya, Jennifer Hill of SWAN Day CT, Deborah Magdalena of SWAN Day Miami, Charné & Rachel of SWAN Day Chicago, Christine Kellogg of SWAN Day Pensacola, Vanessa Gendron of SWAN Day Prague, Sheila Kalkbrenner of SWAN Days Allegany County, Karin Hendricks of SWAN Day Central Coast, Deborah Gaffney of SWAN Day Houston, Martha Richards of WomenArts, Michaela Goldhaber and Bay Area WTF, Brenda Foley of The Bridge Initiative, Kristen van Ginhoven of WAM Theatre, Jennie Webb of Los Angeles Women’s Female Playwright Initiative, Avis Boone of Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, the League of Professional Theatre Women, SAG-AFTRA, The Kilroys, and so many others. You inspire us everyday!

Additional SWAN Day 2020 Blog Posts:

SWAN Day Los Angeles: An Evening of Micro-Reads!

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Our spotlights continue today with SWAN Day Los Angeles, now in its 6th year of celebration. We caught up with Jennie Webb, SWAN Day LA coordinator and co-founder of LAFPI, to talk about what’s in store for this year’s celebration.

StateraArts: Tell us a little bit about what’s on the docket for SWAN Day LA this year.
Jennie Webb: This will be the sixth year LA Female Playwrights Initiative has organized a SWAN Day Los Angeles celebration. This year, we’re grateful to be hosted by Ensemble Studio Theatre LA! One of the things LAFPI includes at any of our performance events or gatherings is what we call “Micro-Reads,” which are 1-page plays or 1-page of a play (or whatever!) that are, pretty much, pulled out of a box and performed on-the-spot. It’s important to me that LAFPI is always inclusive. That’s the idea behind our “Micro-Read Hook-Ups.” We do these for the holidays in December, and this year for SWAN Day. The deal is, we assemble a team of women directors and a pool of actors, put out the call for Micro-Reads from local female-identifying writers, then throw them all together. It involves rehearsing and performing and even adding material from new writers the evening-of, with time built in for sharing food and drinks and stories (offstage). I guess our Micro-Read Hook-Up are a cross between artistic matchmaking and community building! It’s free and all-volunteer based, but we’re putting around 50 artists to work, most of whom identify as women. There’s an incredible, inspiring collective energy at these events. Plus, they’re a lot of fun for everyone – the artists and the audiences who join us!

SA: What makes you most excited about SWAN Day LA this year?
JW: I’m already excited by the material that’s coming in – the theme for these Micro-Reads is TRUTH. I’m always blown away by how much writers can accomplish in one page and 400 words or less! I also love that SWAN Day LA lets us catch up with artists who have been involved with LAFPI, but also introduces us to new artists. I kind of get ridiculously giddy when a submission comes in from a writer I’m not familiar with! But I guess I’m most excited by the opportunity to work with EST/LA artists. They’re really interested in moving new directions, supporting new voices and diversity. Their last mainstage was written by a woman, March LA Fest programming features outreach projects by artists of color, they are hosting SWAN Day Los Angeles 2020, they’ve got a late-night show running that’s femme-penned, and their upcoming One Act Festival includes 50% female playwrights. SWAN Day LA has a terrific team of directors this year, as well as some incredible playwrights and actors who have submitted to participate! LA is so spread out and it’s easy to just stay in your little corner of it, never venturing out. LA Theater is like that, too. Events like this are cool because they force us to meet and work with new artists. My hope is that this sets the stage for future collaborations and lasting connections!

SA: Can you tell us a bit about why you feel called to lead SWAN Day in this capacity?
JW: I was introduced to SWAN Day by WomenArts founder Martha Richards a few years after Laura Shamas and I founded LAFPI (in 2010). Martha is one of the most fabulous women I know, and I thought the idea of a “DIY” holiday to support women artists was the best thing ever. But because LAFPI is NOT a producing organization (we’re basically a service organization, working to promote, support and connect female-identifying playwrights), I had to figure out the right way for us to celebrate. It had to be an event that was open to all femme voices without barriers (read: free), but perhaps also gave writers more visibility. And what was essential to me is that anything LAFPI was involved in made for a positive, welcoming, non- judgmental environment. At that time, Samuel French Bookshop in Hollywood had opened up its doors to us to hold our quarterly gatherings, so in 2014 we convinced them to host our first public SWAN Day Los Angeles event: a day full of performances of 10-minute plays curated by Little Black Dress INK and two sessions of our Micro-Reads. Over the years we’ve varied the format, partnering with City Garage, Free Association Theatre, Green Light Productions, Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and, last year, A Noise Within. But whatever shape SWAN Day Los Angeles takes – and wherever we find ourselves – it’s always a fantastic celebration. I mean: women, food, wine and theater. Really, what else do you need for a party?

DIRECTOR PROFILES

Virtic Emil Brown is an actress, writer, producer and director. She was the Oscar Press Guide Manager for the Academy Awards. Some producing and directing film credits include HINDSIGHT, MISSION IN KOSOVO, WILL UNPLUGGED. Some award winning acting credits, LIGHT IN DARK PLACES, JACOB STONE, d.o.G, THE SHIELD. Some recent credits include DR. FAUSTUS, HARLEM SOUTH, THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN and THE HUMAN SPIRIT. Her film ON TOUR premiered at The 70th Venice International Film Festival library. As a writer and director, her play Free! was performed at EST/LA’s Winterfest 2020. She is a member of WGA, SAG-AFTRA & AEA. She is also a Board Member of the Classical Theatre Lab and a member of many inclusion committees at the WGA.

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Lauren Campedelli is an LA-based director, intimacy director and actor. Director: 2019’s Shiva for Anne Frank, a solo show by comedian Rachel McKay Steele, at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Intercession by Maia Villa, Evie, Duty Calls by Karen Rizzo, Lizzie by Jose Rivera—all for Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, where she has helmed numerous staged and workshop readings for its development programs. Associate director: Theatre of Note’s recent Driving Wilde, Evidence Room’s Don Carlos and Hard Times. SoCal acting credits include productions with Evidence Room, Sacred Fools, The Actors’ Gang, Center Theatre Group, The Old Globe, EST/LA, and more. Visit www.laurencampedelli.com

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Taji Coleman is a native Angeleno and Spelman College graduate. She started as a dancer then a model, hated that and became a working actor.  Fast forward, Taji is now a multi-hyphen talent on a creative adventure. Her current hyphen adventure is lending her voice for an upcoming video game. Stay tuned - Taji is coming to a screen...or stage near you.

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Sarah Yejin Hahm is a director and actor based in Seoul, Los Angeles, and New York. Her multi-cultural background and experience as a classical musician influences much of her experimental art. A few of her favourite recent theatre directing credits include: Doubles (Skylight Theatre), The Girlfriend (New Opera West), Spring Awakening (USC), and Tongues & Savage/Love (USC). She was most recently seen as Masako in Kentucky directed by Tim Dang and Last Night in Town written by Julia Stier at Manhattan Repertory Theatre, which she also directed. She is a proud graduate of the University of Southern California, BA Theatre.

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Kristen Lazarian is an award-winning playwright based in Los Angeles who has had her plays produced at many venues in L.A. including the Geffen Playhouse, Theatre 40, East-West Players, Theatre Geo, the Road Theatre, Pacific Resident Theatre, 68 Cent Crew, and the Blank Theatre. Her plays have also been staged across the United States and internationally. Her plays include Grace of God, Food & Drink, Push, Love Like Blue, Flesh & Tenderness, Inviting Karma, Sophisticated Barflies & Other Short Plays, and more. In addition to writing plays, Kristen is a screenwriter. She wrote the screenplay for THE SHIFT, based on the spiritual teachings of self-improvement pioneer Wayne Dyer (HayHouse). Kristen did the screenplay adaption of her play PUSH which is currently in production in NYC, starring Victoria Justice and Matthew Daddario.

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Tarah Pollock is a director, actor, and producer in LA Theater. She has been a member of EST/LA for five years and has worked on many developmental readings as well as full productions, including but not limited to the world premieres of Watching O.J. by David McMillian, Lost in Time by Tony Pasqualini, and Charlotte Stay Close by Christine Hamilton-Schmidt. Tarah is also a founding member and co-producer with the femme-led company Elan Ensemble, who won the Stage Raw award for Best Adaptation in 2019 for their Miranda July adaptation How We’re Different From Animals. www.TarahPollock.com @tarah_pollock

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Jennie Webb is an LA-based playwright and dramaturg in residence at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, with works produced and/or supported by theaters and programs including Rogue Machine, Playwrights Center’s PlayLab, Great Plains Theatre Conferences, La Jolla Playhouse, Theatre of NOTE, Road Theatre Summer Playwrights Festivals, Santa Monica Rep, Inkwell Theater, Blank Theatre, Rogue Artists Ensemble’s Rogue Lab, Little Black Dress INK, Virginia Avenue Project, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, PlayGround-LA & Moving Arts MADlab, and staged internationally in the UK, India and Iceland. She is currently a member of the Playwrights Union, EST/LA Playwrights Unit, Under Construction at the Road and the Dramatists Guild, and co-founder of LA Female Playwrights Initiative (lafpi.com). jenniewebbsite.com @jenniewebbsite

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Elena Campbell-Martínez is a bilingual Mexican-American actor-director. Currently, Elena is the neighborhood curandera Doña Lupe on three seasons of the Starz series Vida. Other recent TV & film appearances include This Is Us, Unbelievable, Papi Chulo, Atypical and Liza On Demand. Elena volunteers her time supporting new voices in the theatre as well as the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Latino Scene Showcase. She recently directed a play about the family separation crisis at our border as part of the Latino Program of the Short+Sweet Hollywood festival. Elena and her husband Dennis share their cozy Highland Park home with their family of three adorkable rescue pups.

IG: @elenurcia Twitter: @ElenaCampbell FB: @ElenaCampbellMartinezActor

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SWAN Day LA will take place on Saturday, March 28th, 6-10pm at Ensemble Studio Theatre LA (3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles, California 90039). Collaborators (actors, directors, and playwrights with Micro-Reads) should arrive at 6 pm; community and audience members are welcome to join at 7 pm; presentation of Micro-Reads begins at 8pm!  To stay in the loop about SWAN Day LA, check out the FaceBook event here.

Interested in adding your women-led art event to the Statera Calendar? Please submit your information HERE.

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SWAN Day Milwaukee: Making Room for Motherhood

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All photos courtesy of Jake Hill.

As part of our ongoing efforts to increase the visibility of women artists, StateraArts puts the spotlight on them every March and April through Support Women Artists Now Day. Today we’re spotlighting SWAN Day Milwaukee, which is now in its 5th year of celebration. We had an opportunity to chat with Jamie Bilgo Bruchman, SWAN Day Milwaukee organizer, to talk about her experience stepping back and asking for help when she became pregnant last year.

“Planning an exhibit like this is basically a full-time job”, she shared with us. “I knew that I couldn’t put that on myself right as I was having my first baby. But it was a huge task, and I didn’t want to ask it of someone else, either.” Check out the video below to hear Jamie share how her volunteer team stepped up to the plate, and all the ways in which the community she created is now the one to catch her in her first few months as a mother.

SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day MKE - An annual exhibition advocating for gender parity in the arts and celebration of Milwaukee women's creativity! Over the past five years, hundreds of women-identified artists of all ages, disciplines, and levels of artistic experience residing in Milwaukee and surrounding areas have participated in an informal, non-juried celebration and exhibition. SWAN Day MKE partners each year with a local non-profit or cause to support women’s equality in all parts of life. SWAN Day MKE exhibitions explore broader themes of women’s artistic and spiritual connections to the environment, society, and each other, and how these roots nourish one’s work, activism, and daily living.

SWAN DAY MKE 2020 EVENTS

SWAN Day MKE 2020 Theme - "TRANSFORMATIVE POWER"

ARTISTS' RECEPTION at the Collective
9224 W. Burleigh Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53222
Saturday, March 28th, 2pm-5pm 
FREE and open to the public.
See the Facebook event page here.

COMMUNITY ART STUDIO at Bloom
2230 S. Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53207
Saturday, March 28th, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Pay what you are able / Suggested donation of $10
See the Facebook event page here.

EXHIBITION: March 6th - April 3rd
The exhibit at both locations is FREE to view.

SWAN INSPIRED COMMUNITY COLORING PARTY at Art*Bar
722 E Burleigh St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212
Saturday, April 4th, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM
See the Facebook event page here.

Donate to the SWAN Day MKE 2020 GoFundMe fundraiser here. Or donate via Fractured Atlas here.

Interested in adding your women-led art event to the 2020 SWAN Day Calendar? Please submit your information HERE.

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SWAN Day Chicago: A Celebration of Black Hair

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Today we’re spotlighting SWAN Day Chicago now in its 7th year of celebration. We caught up with Rachel Gadson, SWAN Day Chicago co-coordinator, to talk about what’s in store for this year’s celebration.

StateraArts: Tell us a little bit about what's on the docket for SWAN Day Chicago.
Rachel Gadson: Sure! This year we'll be featuring Black women hairstylists. Showcasing our hair as art is such an empowering and affirming tool that we are so excited to explore. We wanted to explore the creativity within the Black woman’s hair experience and how so much of it is representative of how we uniquely express ourselves. We’ve specifically hand-picked women in 5 different hairstyling categories: Natural Hair, Weaves, Colorist, Braider, Short Hair Stylist/Barber. We want this to not only be an exhibition of the expressions of Black women’s multifaceted hair care but a celebration of the innovative and talented women behind them. We hope the attendees of this year's SWAN Day Chicago leave with an enlightening experience.  

SA: What makes you most excited about SWAN Day Chicago this year?
RG: I think what's most exciting is being able to highlight and showcase such an expressive and unique art form that isn't celebrated as much as it could/should be. Black women have used hair in many ways to express style, creativity and influence culture. We are honored to accentuate the diversity of this immersive industry.

SA: Can you tell us a bit about why you feel called to lead SWAN Day in this capacity?
RG: Creating space to empower our peers has always been the fuel to lead SWAN Day events. Charne Graham and I started the celebrations here in Chicago in 2014 under the guise of wanting to create opportunities for women to support other women. It is also vital that we make the artists feel appreciated for the amazing commitment they display to their craft. It's not often that women are credited and honored in the world of creative arts, especially black women. We found that if we continue cultivating these spaces to lift up our peers, then we have done our part in effecting a change to that narrative. Fostering a strong sense of community of extremely talented women from Chicago is the root of why we take on the mission each year. 

MEET THE ARTISTS

Courtney "Conay" Elzy is a licensed cosmetologist located in Chicago, Illinois, specializing in braids & protective styling. She aims to provide top of the line service to each and every client.
www.conay.as.me
IG: @conay_control

Latoya Johnson owns Laced Layers Beauty and specializes in natural hair care & protective styles.(Image is of LaToya’s work, on model @themonalena)
www.lacedlayers.com
IG: @lacedlayers_beauty

Sheena Renee is a well known hair expert and master stylist in the industry today. Known for her ability to create sleek, shiny curls and beautiful soft waves, her wide range of abilities have made her a sought after stylist in Atlanta for years. Sheena also specializes in remarkable sew-in extensions and wig installs.
www.sheenarenee.com
IG:@iamsheenarenee

For over 20 years, Chicagoland premier celebrity stylist Kesha Levy, continues to lead the beauty industry in expert salon services. As a visionary and trendsetter, her highly trained Chicagoland team provides a number of services; natural hair haircare, cutting edge hair styling, flawless extensions, the “Perfect ponytail” for any occasion, advanced cutting and protective styling. https://www.keystylist.com/.
IG:@keystylist

SWAN Day Chicago will take place on April 4th, 6-10pm at Pear Nova Studio (2150 S Canalport, Chicago). To stay in the loop about SWAN Day Chicago, check out and follow their FaceBook page here, or visit their website at http://www.swandaychicago.com/. We love SWAN Day!!

Interested in adding your women-led art event to the Statera Calendar? Please submit your information HERE.

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